XX
by SilverGilded
Summary: It's too late. Time for a new doctor
1. Deeper than Skin

Horrid sounds emulated from unseen corners and mechanics that were falling apart; failing for reasons that the Doctor could only imagine when his mind isn't being absorbed in the simple fact that he was dieing. A fire burst from the short circuits in the control panels of the TARDIS, but the cold flame of fear shown throughout the Doctors eyes. Residual sweat still dripped from his hairline as his heart rates sped with an ache he couldn't place. Parts of the ceiling fell just inches from him and he didn't give a second glance.

The pain was setting in.

The pain of every cell in his body losing the life it once had. The pain of becoming new filled his body; the depleted cells changing into something that wasn't him and was never going to be him, again.

"I don't want to go," were the last words that escaped his mouth as the pain burned him like ice and a light started to spread over him.

The Doctors body stiffened and contracted as every living part of him became . . . not him. His memories whizzed across his eyes, like a movie reel; being safely wound into a spool to be tucked away to the back of his mind; a solid blackness replaced the bobbin, ready to record.

As the light became stronger, a silent scream formed his face as tension pulsated through his tendons. He tried to scream, but it was as if this light was trapping his voice within it. Another pulse of pain and the scream became easily audible; high-pitched, ear shattering, blood curdling screech that was the definition of agony.

A pane of glass in the background shattered to the floor.

The light slowly dimmed as the Doctors body folded to the floor. Breathing was hard, but so was trying to keep still. A hand shot up to the control panel, searching for a button, finding it and smashing the life out of it. The sound of a _blip_ came out of the monitor and with a ragged intake of air, the Doctor yelled one name.

"JACK HARKNESS!"


	2. XYXX

". . . So I was paragliding off the moon of Karnack's third moon, when. . ."

A swirl of a military issue jacket grazed the floor as the form of a man started to materialize, with his back turned, in front of the control panel.

"HARKNESS!" Snapped the Doctor; clambering to get up on unsteady legs.

Jack swung around, just realizing that he was no longer where he thought he was. After a second of silence, he springs into action and races around to the Doctor to help. As he turns a corner, the Doctor is halfway supported on the control panel of the TARDIS, pressing hell only knows what. Grunts, painful groans and heaves of heavy breathing are accompanied by a thick aura of extreme aggravation; so suffocating that even the infamously famous Jack Harkness takes a pause. The Doctor struggles to keep pulling upwards, but the baggy clothes become a hindrance as they keep getting snagged on levers and loose wires. Finally, so fed up, The Doctor pushes off the controls and, only barely able to stand on any form of functioning leg, staggers backwards to cling to a railing from behind, breathing viciously.

"My god!" Jack expressed; half drooling, half befuddled.

"What?" snapped the Doctor, letting go of the railing to stare down Harkness.

Even just that simple question seemed to stump the immaculately sharp tongued and witty Time Agent.

"You! You're. . . Uum! . . . You're you! You're! . . . Oh god!" Jack struggled to find words.

"Comprehensible words would make this conversation go a lot smoother Captain," The Doctor spoke through gasps, but somehow still finding the drive to be sarcastic.

As Jack stood there, his eyes roamed rudely up and down the Doctors body, making it painfully obvious that he liked what he saw.

"You're hott!" Jack dribbled out.

The Doctor was a woman. Not only was she a woman, she was also an attractive woman. Standing nearly 5 foot 11 inches, lengths of wavy brown hair fell just to her waist emphasizing her piercing green eyes with a heart shaped face that framed them perfectly, complemented by lush lips, but not much else could be told of her from the lack of shape of her clothes.

"Thanks for that, Jack," The Doctor rolled her eyes, "Now come and help me. I brought you here for a reason, not to gawk at me,"

The Captain sprang in to attack mode, instantly gluing his eyes to the monitors of the, miraculously stable, TARDIS.

"What happened? Has the Daleks resurfaced? The Ood contacted you again?" Jack lists off as he starts pulling levers and pushing buttons.

The Doctor stands there in silence with a dead-pan look on her face as she crosses her arms over her chest.

"If you push the blue one, it'll make a monkey pop out of the screen," The Doctor smiled unto happily.

Jack stopped what he was doing and looked out to the Doctor, with a confused expression on his face.

"Well, if nothing is happening, why am I here?" He asked plainly.

The Doctor shrugged heavily in the trench that seemed to just drape over her, making a point to show that the pants and shirt were nothing but hanging cloth.

"I can't remember were I put my clothes," The Doctor pointed out.


	3. Only a Woman Can

"I swear Harkness! You come near that banister again. . ." The Doctor's threat fell silent as foot steps scampered away above her, while she pulled her suspenders onto her shoulders.

What could she do to him? The man was a fixed point in time. He'd just come back to life in a matter of minutes. The Doctor shrugged and continued to get dress.

"Are you done yet?" Jack complained loudly, so the Doctor would hear him, "You've been a woman all of 2 hours and you already take forever to get dressed,"

"That's because for the first hour and 50 minutes you helped me find my clothes," the Doctor said right behind Jack, were he was looking at one of the monitors.

Jack nearly jumped over the control panel from the burst of her voice being so close, yelping so loud the Doctor couldn't help but snicker.

"How the hell did you do that?" Jack shouted, "I couldn't even get near the railing without you hearing me and you get up the stares without even a squeaky bolt!"

"I didn't take the stares," She told him flatly.

Jack stared at her with a bewildered look on his face that spoke faster than he could. The Doctor stared at him for a moment, waiting for Harkness to at least utter some kind of syllable.

"Then how did you get up here?" Jacks face scrunched up in confusion as he –tried- to stare her down.

The Doctor shrugged again, not much worried about her answer.

"I don't know," She said as she walked to her side of the controls, he clunky industrial boots making a small ruckus on the grated deck.

Jack blinked a few times before the words set in and he raced around to the Doctor.

"Wait, what do you mean you don't know?" Jack scowled with more confusion than anger.

He knows a lot of things and something he shouldn't know at all, but when ever he's confused, that feeling as never sat right with him.

"I don't know," The Doctor said again, "I was down stairs getting dress and when I was done, I wasn't. I'm hungry."

The mood was so abruptly changed that Jack's mind was slightly floored; as was the TARDIS. The Doctor pressed and pulled levers like she knew was she was doing and her police box zoomed through time, knocking Jack to the ground as the Doctor smiled peacefully


End file.
